When it comes to notable pubs in
sitcoms, we quickly think of well-known examples like The Nag’s Head in ‘Only
Fool’s and Horses’, the favoured local for Del Boy, Rodney, Grandad (later
Uncle Albert) and other regular characters, The Royal Oak in ‘Goodnight
Sweetheart’ the staging post for many of Gary Sparrow’s time travelling
exploits, Foley’s in ‘Mrs Brown’s Boys’ which seems to be the only place the
character meet on a night out, or The Archer Hotel in ‘Two Pints of Lager and a
Packet of Crisps’ that provides the centre-point for the main characters social
life. Since the 1950’s we have witnessed many a character visit a pub in a
sitcom, sometimes these places weren’t even named like Lee and Tim’s local in
‘Not Going Out’ merely referenced as the pub, occasionally these places are
only referenced but never seen like The Feathers in ‘The Royle Family’ and on
the rare instance entire sitcoms have been set within a pub, like The Grapes in
‘Early Doors’. All these pubs share common links, they are regular focal points
of activities for the main characters, yet in reality most of these pubs don’t
exist. Most of the time, these interiors were mocked up in the studio, and when
the exteriors of real pubs were seen (on the rare occasion), the interiors
generally didn’t match what was seen in the sitcoms. Despite these setbacks, in
recent decades as sitcoms have moved out of the confines of the studio and away
from the studio audience, production teams have gradually favoured the practise
at filming on location at real pubs, though sometimes the exteriors and
interiors were filmed at different establishments, and the continued practise
of fictional name calling still exists, this is a significant progression from
its studio bound origins. There are number of real pubs out there that have
featured in iconic sitcoms, although many are still open, some have sadly since
closed, repurposed or even demolished. Here is a potted guide to the various
public houses, forms of camera-trickery and the lengths production teams took to
feature pubs within the UK’s most iconic sitcoms.
Back in the day, sitcoms used to
be filmed before a live studio audience and location filming was often seldom
featured, apart from a few notable exceptions. For sitcoms that heavily
featured pubs as a principal setting, in order to give an air of authenticity,
production teams would sometimes shoot exteriors outside real pubs, even-though
on many an occasion the interiors would invariably hardly match their fake
studio-bound counterparts. The earliest known example dates from the 'Steptoe and Son' episode 'Loathe Story' broadcast in 1972, where the exterior of the Latimer Arms, North Kensington appears in a flashback sequence, it stood for the fictional Skinner Arms where a young Harold is seen sitting in the rag and bone cart waiting for his father. Sometimes exterior shots were featured on a rare occasional basis,
for instance The Greyhound which heavily as Alf Garnett’s local in ‘In Sickness
and in Health’, the exterior is only seen twice, firstly in the fourth episode
of series 1 when a drunken Alf wheels Else out of the pub, and again in the
opening title sequence from Series 2 onwards. Despite it being set in West Ham,
it was filmed at The Greyhound in Shepherd’s Bush, conveniently near the
studios at Television Centre. The pub was built in 1892, initially run by
Isleworth Brewery then taken over by Watney Combe Reid and latterly by
Enterprise Inns, the pub closed in 2017. Another example of this practise is The Crown in 'Men Behaving Badly', which is the local pub for Gary and Tony (plus Dermot!) in the series. Although it features in most episodes, exterior shots are seldom seen; yet in the episode 'The Good Pub Guide' it begins with the duo walking up to the pub where they meet new landlord Ken, location footage was filmed at The Greyhound in
Hammersmith, a large multi-level building, it barely matched up to the squalid dingy one-room pub depicted in the series. Interestingly The Greyhound, was at one time a popular music venue hosting the likes of Status Quo, Uriah
Heep, Thin Lizzy, The Stranglers and The Jam, by the 1990’s it housed the
Cosmic Comedy Club and in its latter years it became a restaurant called The
Southern Belle before closing in 2017. Likewise in ‘Three Up, Two Down’ Sam Tyler (no
relation) regularly visits his local pub often accompanied by his friend Wilf,
the pub itself was a studio set and its exterior was rarely seen in the series,
however it does feature briefly in the episode ‘ Love and Death’ when The Swan
in Chiswick features as the exterior, which was owned by Charrington at the
time of filming. Conversely, a number of pub exteriors feature in ‘Just Good Friends’, The
Shepherd & Dog in Rochford appears twice in the episodes ‘Hello Again’ and
‘Guilt’ respectively, and other pubs make single appearances, including The
Huntsman and Hounds, Chelmsford in the episode ‘Another Man’ when Vince and Pen
have an late evening drink in the pub garden, and The Weir, seen in the opening
scene of ‘The Evidence/ His Bottle Went’, it’s location is a mystery but the
pair are later seen boating outside the pub so it could be Walton-on-Thames. In
the 1984 Christmas Special, a Red Lion pub is also briefly seen, when Les
pushes Lennie out the pub. Meanwhile in other sitcoms, pub exteriors can be
seen on a frequent basis, such as The Horseshoe Inn in Ratlinghope, Shopshire
which stood in for the village pub in The Green Green Grass, which is
frequently seen in opening montages or the odd episode such as ‘Lust in
Translation’, a Grade II listed building, it serves a good array of local beers
including Three Tuns XXX (4.3%) and a simple menu that uses local
produce, since filming it has changed ownership, and is now called The Bridges,
which was originally the nickname given by locals; the continously rebuilt public house in 'World of Pub' which changes its theme in each episode only to end up getting destroyed, exterior shots used Turner’s Old Star, Wapping, a historic tavern purchased by artist Joseph Turner for his mistress Sophia Booth in 1829, intriguingly the studio-based interior was a faithful reconstruction of the real pub even-down to it's stained glass windows and distinctive oak-carved bar counter replete with pillars supporting a gantry; The Royal Oak, Bethnal Green which was used in most episodes of 'Goodnight Sweetheart' a Grade II listed Truman’s pub built in 1923, as the basis for Gary Sparrow’s time travelling endeavours, for the series it was redesigned in a wartime setting replete with taped windows and Truman’s brewery paraphernalia to
suit the program’s period setting, the pub is also shown in the series to have seperate bars (although the public bar is usually only shown in the series) which is accurate to the location during the time period, which had partitions for public and private bars, with additional space for dining and off sales facillities; moreover, The Two Ways in Finnieston, Glasgow which was
utilized as the exterior for the local pub The Giblet in ‘Rab C. Nesbitt’, it featured in nearly every episode up to Series 8, the pub (initially called the
Finnieston Station Bar) was opened in 1880, by Buchanan, Scott & Company, a
consortium that ran a number of pubs in the area. Subsequently in 1960, the
company sold off the pub and it was renamed The Two Ways; over a decade after
the original run of ‘Rab C. Nesbitt’ ended, in 2009 the pub was taken over by
Trust Inns and thoroughly renovated into modern style bar, renamed this time as
The Brass Monkey. Perhaps
the pub which has the most changes in its outward appearance is the Nag’s Head
in ‘Only Fools and Horses’ which has changed its frontage more times than
Trigger’s broom, and despite it being set in Peckham, it was never filmed there.
The pub exterior is first seen in the closing shot of the Series 2 episode ‘It
Never Rains’, when the Reliant Robin is seen parked outside the pub, in this
instance The Three Johns, Angel was utilized, the same pub was used again two
episodes later in the 1982 Christmas special ‘Diamonds Are For Heather’. The
exterior of the Nag’s Head next appears just over two years later in the
episode ‘Hole in One’ when the Prince Arthur in Ladbroke Grove was used for the
scene when Uncle Albert throws himself down the pub’s cellar and manages to
land on pub landlord Mike! Another three years passed before the exterior of
the pub was seen again, when it featured in 1988 Christmas special, ‘Dates’, in
this episode two pubs in the Bristol area were used as exteriors, The Waggon
and Horses in Easton during the scene when Del is dragged out by the police and
The Bristol Flyer in Bishopton, which was used for night shots, Another Bristol based pub was used as the exterior in
the Series 7 episode ‘Chance of a Lunchtime’ when The White Horse in Bedminster
was used for the scene when Cassandra sees Rodney seeming ‘struggling’ with
Del’s old flame Trudy outside the pub, then in 1991 Christmas special ‘Miami Twice - The Amrican Dream’ when The
Middlesex Arms in South Ruislip was used the exterior. The final exterior used for The Nag's Head in the series was The Granary, Bristol; for the 1993 Christmas special 'Fatal Extraction', it was also used for the cocktail bar in the episode 'Yuppy Love'. Out of the various pub used in the series only The Three Johns, The Middlesex Arms, The Granary and The Bristol Flyer are still in business. In the space of over a
decade the frontage of the Nag’s Head changed seven times, at one point twice in
one episode, this surely deserves an award from the local councillor for most
transformed pub.
There has been the odd occasion
where pubs appearing in sitcoms are not what they seem to be, although in
recent decades location filming inside pubs (as opposed to just exteriors) has
become more prevalent in sitcoms generally, due to production issues or
directorial judgement, sometimes the interior of a pub is shot at a different
location to the one used for the exteriors. For example in ‘Detectorists’, Andy
and Lance’s favourite local is The Two Brewers, a country pub located on the
outskirts of the fictional village of Danebury. Many episodes feature the pub,
Andy and Lance are often seen have a pint of the fictional Magpie and Treasure
Trove beers following a busy day metal detecting, and sometimes they are
accompanied by the other members of the Danebury Metal Detecting Club. In
reality the pub doesn’t exist as such, the exteriors for the pub were filmed at
the Castle Inn in Framlingham, whilst the interiors were shot at the Crown
located in nearby Great Glenham. Both pubs are steeped in history, The Castle
Inn, a cottage style pub built in the 19th century, it once housed a
brewery under the name of Castle Brewery; originally a beer house, it was
granted full public house status in 1957, and recently it received a Cask
Marque award for serving good quality real ale, whilst the Crown is a multi-room
pub, it has stood in the area since the 18th century, although it
was later rebuilt, subsequently in 2011 it was threatened with re-development
however two years later this was
rescinded when villages found a new buyer, the pub closed again the following
year, yet in 2015, Richard and Cheryl Andrews took over the tenancy of the pub,
and it continues to run as a free house.
Another example of this practise is ‘Scarborough’, most of the episodes are set
round the fictionally named pub The Good Ship, where the group of friends meet
on a Friday night. The exteriors for the pub were shot at The Newcastle Packet,
a Grade II listed building and one of the area’s oldest pubs dating back to the
16th century (although it was later rebuilt in the 19th),
its name was derived from the once-lucrative coal shipping traffic
stemming from Newcastle. Meanwhile, the
interior scenes for the pub were shot at The Northgate in Sholver Green,
Oldham, formerly a Boddingtons pub until 1992, nowadays it is run by Joseph
Holt, a major local brewer whom own a number of pubs in the North-West. In some
of these instances, the director chose to use different locations due to
traffic issues with shooting outdoor scenes outside pubs located on busy
high-streets. Alan J.W. Bell was a prolific practitioner in this craft when
working on ‘Last of the Summer Wine’, over the years a number of residential
buildings were redesigned as pub exteriors in a number of episodes.
Occasionally real pub interiors were mixed with fake exteriors such as the
episode ‘Howard Throws a Wobbler’, the interior of the real Huntsman Inn,
Holmfirth was used for indoor scenes, whilst a fake exterior of a cottage
located in a cul-de-sac was utilized as the frontage, since the real pub is
located by a busy thoroughfare. In another episode, ‘Happy Anniversary Gough
and Jessie’, The Shakespeare, Marsden featured as the exterior of two pubs (with
production alterations), one of the ‘pubs’ featured interior location filming
at the real pub, and the other a studio mockup. In the 1995 Christmas special
‘A Leg Up For Christmas’, Bell used two pubs to represent a single pub, The
Swan was used for interior scenes, whilst the Pennine Inn appears in a brief
exterior shot, an unusual practise for the series given the spate of fake pub
exteriors utilized in a number of episodes.
Although the majority of pubs that featured in sitcoms up to the late Nineties were studio based mockups. Occasionally production teams would film interior scenes at real pubs on location along with exterior shots, as far back as 1976 interior location filming took place at the Rising Sun in Sharrow, Sheffield where it briefly featured in 'I Didn't Know You Cared?' episode 'A Signal Disaster' which provides a convenient stop-off point for a improtu pub crawl during a works outing. A few years later, in the
first episode of ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ broadcast in 1981,
Arthur Dent is taken by his friend Ford Prefect to his local pub The Red Lion where he informs of his true identity and the Vogon’s imminent plans to blow up
the Earth to make way for a hyperspace bypass. The scenes at the pub were
filmed entirely on location at the pub of the same name in Hayward’s Heath,
which was built in 1874. The pub was once notably visited by PM Harold
Macmillan and President Kennedy on the latter’s visit to the country in 1963.
Since it featured in Hitchhikers, the pub has been extensively remodelled into
an open plan building with an extensive restaurant menu, it is currently run by
Shepherd Neame. Other early examples include the 'Watching' episode 'Twitching' first shown in 1988, which was extensively filmed at the canalside pub The Slipway, Burscough where Brenda and Malcolm are on the trail of a contingent of unscrupolus twitchers; the following year in 1989 in the 'Only Fools and Horses' episode 'The Jolly Boys Outing', it features scenes shot at The Roman Galley, Margate which stood in for The Halfway House, prior to the scene where the coach memorably blows up in the car-park; in the climatic scenes of the ‘Birds of
a Feather’ episode ‘Sisters are Doing It’ broadcast in 1992, when Tracy’s
philandering boss Bill takes her out to a pub lunch, the scenes were filmed entirely
on location at The Three Hammers, Mill Hill, including exterior shots on the
nearby Ridgeway when Sharon and Dorien deposit a cart-load of manure on Bill’s
car; and in the 'Outside Edge' episode 'Sex ' first shown in 1994, the County Tavern, Nottingham is seen in the opening scenes of the episode when Roger tries to hide from a Bowler whom he recently dropped from his cricket team. Latterly, the likes of ‘Father Ted’ featured location filming at two pubs
during its final series in 1998, Vaughan’s in Kelfenoa, County Clare appears in
two episodes, it first appeared in the episode ‘Are You Alright There Ted?’
when Ted runs from an angry mob when he’s accused of racist comments about the
local Chinese community, he runs into the pub for refuge when he finds a group
of Chinese and one Moari having drinks by the bar. The pub appears in the next
episode ‘Chirpy Burpy Cheap Sheep’ when Ted is having a chat with an
increasingly drunken Fargo Boyle, the pub’s adjacent barn was also used to
house the King of Sheep competition that concludes the episode. Later on in the
series, in the episode ‘The Mainland’, Ted, Dougal, Jack and Mrs Doyle visit
the town of Ennistymon for the day. Jack is briefly seen drinking at Nagel’s Bar following an accidental trip to an AA meeting, a very small one room bar,
before he can down his whisky, he is accosted by the AA Chairman, with
unfortunate consequences for the latter. It is generally considered that ‘Last
of the Summer Wine’ has the most prolific number of pubs featured in any sitcom
in history, over 40 different pubs were featured during the show’s 37 year
history. Although pub exteriors featured as far back as the series one episode
‘Pate & Chips’ when The Woodman, Huddersfield was featured. For the first
decade of the program, real pub exteriors were mixed with fake studio
interiors, and it wasn’t until the 1983 Christmas special ‘Getting Sam Home’
when The Shoulder of Mutton, Huddersfield became the first pub in the series to
feature both exterior and interior filming. By the start of Series 14 in 1992,
production of the series moved to Pinewood Studios, and was shot completely on
film which allowed for even more filming on location. From this point onwards
location filming at pubs became increasingly the norm, and some pubs became
regular filming locations, The Butchers Arms in Hepworth appeared in 31 episodes,
first used for night-time interiors in 1981 Christmas special ‘Whoops’ and
interiors in the Series 12 opener ‘Return of the Warrior’, although the pub was
mainly used for exteriors, it frequently stood in as the interiors for other
pubs due to its good number of drinking eras that could resemble a different
establishment. The common most pub to appear in the series was The White Horse
in Jackson Bridge, which featured in 61 episodes.
It first appeared in night-time
exteriors in the Series 8 episode ‘The Woolen Mills of Your Mind’ and interiors
in the Series 9 episode ‘Jaws’ which features the first appearance of the near-sighted
character Eli, as he attempts to play a game of darts with disastrous consequences
for the other customers. The pub was heavily featured during the show’s 1990’s
episodes and at one point then real-life pub landlord of The White Horse, Ron
Backhouse appeared in 10 episodes broadcast between 1995-2001, the pub last
appeared in the Series 26 episode ‘Watching the Clock’, yet it’s link to the
series is integral to the show’s lasting appeal, it has even featured in a
number of merchandises, including a die-cast model made by Danbury Mint.
With the likes of ‘Last of the
Summer Wine’ leading the charge, by the early 2000’s an increasing number of
sitcoms moved away from the confines of the studio and live studio audiences. Production teams have gradually preferred shooting on location using single camera setups, this includes pubs of course, and nowadays it is highly likely whenever a pub appears in a sitcom, the interiors and exteriors were likely shot in a real pub on location. For instance two west London pubs feature in 'The Inbetweeners' episode 'First Day', namely The Black Bull, Ruislip, where Will, Simon, Jay and Neil arrive at the pub for a student gathering, where they soon find out that they are at the wrong pub, and subsequently The Black Horse, Eastcote, which features later in the same episode. When pubs appear in TV programs, they are generally renamed by the production
team, for reasons generally unexplained. For instance in the 2nd
episode of Gavin & Stacey, The Coach & Horses which is Gavin and
Smiffy’s local boozer wasn’t filmed in Billericay at all, it was filmed
entirely on location at the Colcot Arms in Barry. In later episodes other pubs
feature (although in these instances the real pub names was used), in the 5th
episode Gavin and his mates are seen drinking at The Ship, Barry at the climax
of his stag night, a Greene King pub, it is located towards the mainland end of
the causeway to Barry Island; and in the 2019 Christmas special, Bassett Bar
was utilized at the location for the main cast’s Christmas Eve revelry.
Meanwhile, overseas in Alicante; the scenes filmed at Neptune’s Bar in the long
running sitcom ‘Benidorm’ were shot entirely on location at Morgan’s Tavern.
Featuring in nearly every episode of the series, unlike it’s fictional
counterpart it is a pirate themed bar that hosts cabaret and tribute acts
throughout the year, hosting up to 7 shows per night, and although families are
seen eating there in the series, in reality it has a strict over 16’s policy.
Closer to home, a number of London pubs have also frequently appeared in
sitcoms in recent decades, the bar that is popular with the hospital co-workers
in the 2nd series of ‘Green Wing’ was filmed at the Fountain
Beefeater in Fullwell. In the ‘Only Fools & Horses’ prequel series ‘Rock
& Chips’, the Nag’s Head again changed its appearance, when the Pelton Arms
in Greenwich was utilized. Not only was it redressed to resemble a pub at
c.1960, and unlike the pubs that represented the Nag’s Head in the parent
series it was exclusively shot on location (both interiors and exteriors). A
classic back-street establishment, it was built in 1844, and the pub maintains
many of its historical features including its distinctive l-shaped bar,
fireplaces, ornate glass dividers, bar billiards, darts and slew of advertising
signs, it is easy to see why the pub was ideally suited for the series. Another
London based pub that was extensively used, was The Chandos Arms in Colindale,
which doubled up as The Black Boy in Friday Night Dinner. An unfriendly place
festooned with a large number of St George’s Flags, it is run by its equally
morose landlord Lawrence, whom Jim often calls Mike, and prices are rather
disproportionate, serving lager at £3.03 per pint, and £2 for a half. The pub
appears in three episodes, it makes its first appearance in the series 1
episode ‘The Curtains' when the siblings Adam and Jonny Goodman forget their
wallets and end up sharing half a lager, then in the Series 2 episode ‘The
Loft’ when the barman throws out their parents Jackie and Martin out after
having an argument, and by the time of its final appearance, in the series 5
episode ‘The Surprise’ it has been spruced up with uniformed staff, and a
friendlier table service, when Adam and Jonny try to stall their mother with a
unexpected trip to the pub after their father bungles up her birthday plans. Although
in the series, its described as being round the corner from their parent’s
house, it is located 1.9 miles from the main filming location in Parkshide,
Mill Hill; and in real life, the pub nothing like it’s depiction on the show,
it is a charming early 20th century building constructed in 1937
that has an extensive range of beers and holds regular live music events, it
was even awarded Community Pub of the Year in 2017. The same pub was also
featured in the Peep Show episode ‘Man Jam’ where Super Hans invites Jeremy to
perform at a gig with his band Man Feelings, at the fictionally named Lord
Carrington. ‘Peep Show’ is notable for featuring (after Last of the Summer Wine)
the 2nd highest number of pubs included in a sitcom, over the course
of its 9 series run a total of ten pubs appeared in various episodes, where the
exteriors and interiors were both filmed on location. Going against the usual
practise, the pub names remained unaltered, the ones that feature the most is
The Oval in Croydon which features in three episodes which served as Jeremy and
Mark’s local, and The Adam and Eve in Mill Hill which was included in two.
Although most of the pubs in the series were based within London, occasionally
pubs outside the metropolis were used, in the Series 4 episode ‘Sophie’s
Parents’, The Round Bush in Aldenham was used as the setting when Mark meets
Sophie’s parents for the first time. Later in the Series 9 episode ‘Gregory’s
Beard’, Super Hans meets up with Mark and Dobby to draft a best man’s speech
for his upcoming nuptials. Despite it being billed as located in the middle of
nowhere in the episode, it was filmed at The Black Horse in Chorleywood,
which is only a short 10 minute walk from its respective tube station. In one
notable episode, a pub provided the central premise for the plot, in the Series
3 episode ‘Sectioning’ when Jeremy and Mark’s mentally unhinged friend Merry
tries to sells her pub to Jeremy and Super Hans. The latter have a long debate
of what to name the pub and eventually come up with a compromise name The Swan
& Peado. The filming for this episode was done on location at The Mitre in
Hackney, the pub was already closed for 4 years at the time of filming and was
sold off for residential housing in 2010.
Over the past 50 years, the
inclusion of real pubs in sitcoms has gone from fleeting exterior shots to
extensive location filming, using both interiors and exteriors. This
progression somewhat reflects the changes in production standards when it comes
to sitcoms. At one time, all pubs featured in sitcoms were unrealistic
studio-based setups that never resembled any real-life pubs, even when exterior
filming was introduced in the 1970’s, the studio based interiors failed to
match the exteriors of the pubs featured in the outdoor film inserts. As
production standards changed by the 1990’s, location filming became more
prevalent and by the early 21st century, the confines of the studio
and live audiences were gradually eschewed all-together and in recent years, a
greater number of pubs have appeared in sitcoms, that were filmed entirely on
location. Some of these sitcom pubs still resort to the practise of renaming
the pub signs for the purposes of the script although this is increasingly
rare, whilst other use the ‘nefarious’ practise of using one pub for exteriors
and another for interiors, vaguely reminiscent of the old practise of utilizing
fake studio interiors with real exteriors. In this contemporary instance,
although sometime used for artistic licence, it was down to location issues
with the pub itself that leads production teams to go down this path, as
witnessed in the many instances in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ when director Alan
J.W. had to use alternative pub exteriors when the real ones proved problematic,
even-though on occasion this led to residential properties being redressed to
resemble public houses. Although this can be confusing, fortunately their still
a good number of pubs (filmed entirely on location) that are still in business,
that have featured in ‘recent’ sitcoms like ‘Friday Night Dinner’, ‘Peep Show’,
‘Rock & Chips’, ‘Benidorm’, ‘The Detectorists’ and ‘Gavin & Stacey’ ,
so if you’re ever are inclined to do undertake a TV pub tour or visit the
watering hole where your favourite sitcom was filmed, then here’s your chance.
Footnotes
In sitcoms that don’t heavily feature pubs, real exteriors can be seen, such as
The Six Bells, Bury St Edmunds which featured in two episodes of ‘Dad’s Army’,
namely ‘Ring Dem Bells’ and ‘Wake Up Walmington’ respectively; The Latimer
Arms, Notting Hill which stood in for the location the Skinners Arms in a
flashback sequence in the ‘Steptoe & Son’ episode ‘Loathe Story’, The
Windsor Castle that appears in ‘The Upper Hand’ episode ‘Caroline’s First
Flight’ despite the location being set in Balham, it was filmed at (the
pub of same name ) in The Meadows area
of Nottingham, The Rugby Tavern in Cubbington, which appears in exteriors shots
of the ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ episode ‘Driving Mrs Fortescue’ where Hyacinth
tries to disguise herself as a window cleaner with disastrous consequences, or
The Kebab and Calculator in ‘The Young Ones’ episode Boring, where the
housemates meet Vyvyan’s mother who works as a barmaid and see Madness perform
‘House of Fun’. This was filmed at the Cock o’ North in Henleaze, Bristol,
which has subsequently become The Westbury Park and Kitchen since being take on
by Zazu’s Kitchen Grup in 2016.
Other pubs featured in the series, include The Prospect of Whitby, Wapping
which features briefly in the episode ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Uncle’, The New
Market, Weston Super Mare in the 2001 Christmas special ‘If Only They Could See
Us Now’ and The Roman Galley, Margate which features in the 1989 Christmas
special ‘The Jolly Boys Outing’. Named the fictional ‘Halfway House’ in the
episode, when the group make a pit-stop en-route to Margate; notably in this
instance both the interiors and exteriors were filmed, a rather unusual
practise for the show, the pub closed in 2004 and has since been converted into
residential housing.
In addition to the main pub, other pubs have also featured in the series, in
the episode where Andy and Lance perform at an Open Mic gig event and encounter
their rivals the Antiquesearchers; it was filmed on location at The King’s Head
in Orford.
Although The White Horse appears in 61 episodes, only 52 of them featured
location filming both interiors and exteriors. A further nine episodes featured
a studio set, that was a faithful recreation of the pub’s interior, even down
to using their real menus which can be glimpsed in some scenes.
Other frequently used pubs in the series include the Railway, the Rose &
Crown, The Shakespeare and the former pubs The Greyhound, The Railway, The
Shoulder of Mutton, The Carriage Inn, The Huntsman and the Monkey.
